Views expressed by the host on this program, documented to be almost always right, 99.6% of the time, the Sullivan group still working on an appeal audit.
Hope you hear from them this week.
You never know.
Telephone number 800-282-2882 if you want to be on the program, the email address lrushbow at EIBnet.com.
Okay, get this.
This is from the smokinggun.com.
Teacher arrested for pelting McDonald's worker with food at drive-through window.
A Florida junior has screwed teacher facing a battery charge after she threw an assortment of food items back through a drive-through window following a dispute with the McDonald's employee.
This, according to cops, the incident which was captured by a restaurant surveillance camera occurred 9.45 Saturday morning at McDonald's in Lakeland, Florida, not near Port St. Lucie.
Simone Polercho, 39, had ordered about $20 worth of food when she got into a dispute with a worker manning the drive-through window.
In a nutshell, she was unhappy with two of her hash browns.
And when they didn't immediately give her a refund, she threw the food back at the McDonald's employee through the drive-through window.
She then fled the scene, was later arrested at her home.
Ms. Palercio is a sixth grade teacher at Lakeland Highlands Middle School.
She was booked into the county jail on Saturday, released from custody yesterday.
She is a person of color and of girth, by the way.
Her husband is now threatening to sue McDonald's over her arrest.
At least she didn't call 911.
At least she didn't call Obama, as they would have done in Port St. Lucie.
She just threw the food back at him, went home, and they came and arrested her.
Yeah, it's funny, but she's got a master's degree in education.
She's a teacher.
You know, hire this babe at Penn State.
Put her in the men's locker room.
You know, this business here, well, she doesn't take any guff.
She throws the hash browns right back at him through the drive-thru window.
House Speaker John Boehner yesterday, and he had a press conference today, a very short one, but he made the same point.
He rejected a Senate plan to extend the payroll tax cut for two months, thwarting a deal cut by the White House and Senate Republicans that would prevent taxes from rising on middle-class workers in the new year.
Boehner said that the Senate plan to extend the payroll tax cut for only two months is just kicking the can down the road.
He called on Congress to come up with a bill that extended the tax cut all the way through 2012.
Now, apparently there was a deal here between Obama and Senate Republicans, and Boehner has thwarted it.
Everybody wanted to kick the can down the road for just two months and bring the issue back up and allow Obama to bring the issue back up as a campaign issue again next year in an official campaign year.
Does I think Boehner is true that Boehner agreed to what?
Oh, well, I don't know what happened.
The White House saying is Boehner agreed to this and then turned his back on it.
I don't, frankly, I was tuned out all weekend.
I really wasn't paying attention to this.
And it was Catherine's birthday over the weekend.
Those are also multiple-day events.
And I really, I didn't pay any attention to this over the weekend.
I frankly didn't.
Folks, even I need time out from this stuff.
Even I do.
Now, as the Senate prepared to vote for the bill calling for a two-month extension, the White House understood that Boehner signed off on it.
Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said the Speaker never approved the Senate bill, that he never went along with this, that the House was never going to go along for kicking it down the road for just two months.
Anyway, it is what it is.
Whether the White House is right that Boehner changed his mind on this or not, the fact is Boehner's hanging tough on this and saying, look at the president said we all need to stay here, Democrats, and we all need to stay here, finish our work before we go on vacation.
And that's what House Republicans.
He kept saying we agree with the president.
We certainly agree with the fact.
Let me sit there with the audio sound bites.
Where am I up to?
Yep.
Here we go.
Grab number seven.
Let's just see what Boehner has to say.
This is Sunday morning.
It's on Meet the Press.
David Gregory talking to Boehner.
They're having this discussion about payroll tax cut debate.
And Gregory says, so what's going to happen?
I and our members oppose the Senate bill.
It's only for two months.
You know, the president said we shouldn't go on vacation until we get our work done.
And frankly, House Republicans agree.
We passed a one-year extension of the payroll tax credit on employment insurance with reforms, making sure that those doctors who treat Medicare patients are not going to see their reimbursements cut.
We had a reasonable, responsible bill that will be sent over to the Senate.
And, you know, if you talk to employers, they talk about the uncertainty.
How can you do tax policy for two months?
Yeah.
Understand that.
And same show, Gregory said, do you trust President Obama as a partner in this?
We've had very good discussions.
I do trust him.
It's not that we have a tough time coming to an agreement.
But the president and I have a very cordial relationship.
I hope it'll continue.
Would you ever hear Nancy Pelosi say she trusted George W. Bush?
I don't know whether Boehner really trusts Obama or whether he thinks it's politic to say so.
Probably the latter.
My guess is that our consultants are all over our guys.
Our pollsters are all over.
We know that the rule of thumb coming out of the Republican Party.
Don't criticize Obama.
He's personally popular.
People even feel sorry for him.
Don't be critical of the president.
No, yeah, we trust the president.
I have a very cordial relationship with the president.
Here's Boehner.
He was this morning on Capitol Hill.
He had a press conference during a Q ⁇ A. Reporters said, we were told that you initially supported the Senate payroll tax cut bill this two-week, the two-month thing.
You said that the House should move forward with the Senate.
No, that's not true.
What I was outlining was the fact that having the Keystone Pipeline in here was a success.
But I raised concerns about the two-month process from the moment that I heard about it.
The Keystone pipeline remains the big bugaboo in this whole thing because, you know, there's a story I have here in my stack of stuff about the left being very, very disappointed in Obama and the way he's handled this.
And they don't think Obama's got guts.
They don't think Obama can close a deal.
They don't think Obama, he just, he doesn't have what it takes.
And they're very worried Obama is going to cave on this.
He said precisely that he wasn't going to cave, but they are very worried that he has caved and is going to cave on this.
Unnamed Democrats in this story, very, very worried that Obama is going to cave, or already has on this.
And one of the, I think the thinking in the Senate Republican side, correct me if I'm wrong here.
The thinking on the Senate Republican side is that just a two-month extension puts more pressure on Obama next year to continue to sign off on the Keystone pipeline, that this two-month thing does not give him enough time to, anybody enough time to adequately review it and approve it.
So this is two months more that he's got to delay it.
But the thinking is that when the time is up, he's going to have to approve it because it's going to be too big a lightning rod issue affecting his campaign.
Everybody's going to know by then all the jobs that are not going to be created if he vetoes this thing, that all of the expansion, the increased amount of energy that we will have ourselves.
We have 625,000 miles of pipeline in this country.
You know how many miles it is around the earth?
How many miles around the earth is it, Snurdley?
There are 625,000 miles of pipeline in the United States.
That's enough to circle the earth 25 times.
And Obama is running around saying this pipeline is too dangerous.
This pipeline is too risky.
We have 650 or 625,000 miles of pipeline in this country.
They were built when America was winning the future.
Now, instead of winning the future, we resist it.
And we blame the limp economy on everybody but Obama.
But I know that somewhere the thinking is that there's going to be more pressure on Obama to okay the pipeline next year in an actual election year.
People still don't understand what he's doing with this.
The reason he keeps, he wants to put this off, he wants money coming in on both sides.
He wants both donors contributing money to him.
The minute he makes a decision either way on this, half of the money coming in dries up.
Got to take a break.
We'll do that.
We'll be back after this and continue.
To answer the question, circumference of the earth at the equator is about 25,000 miles.
To be exact, 24,901.5 miles.
So 25,000 miles around the earth, we have 625,000 miles of pipeline in this country.
Everything's cool.
Everything's fine.
And we built that amount of pipeline when America was growing in the midst of growth and promise.
Why they call this the payroll tax cut?
You ever wonder why they're calling this the payroll tax cut extension?
Because people are sick of hearing unemployment compensation extension, which is what this really is.
Why don't they call it what it is, the unemployment compensation extension bill?
That's going to cost more than continuing this 2% cut to the payroll tax.
But the news media realize, folks, that the American people, you, you're getting sick of unemployment benefit extensions.
So they call it something else.
A payroll tax cut extension.
I've got a soundbite.
I'm not going to play it.
Well, let's play.
Grab number 10.
Because this is Chuck Hugheschumer.
And it's on Morning Joe this morning.
And Scarborough said, Tom Friedman, Jeffrey Sachs on Friday both agree the two-month extension of payroll tax cuts makes no economic sense.
It's throwing good money after bad.
On Friday, Speaker Boehner said, I can get this pass.
All you have to do is put the Keystone pipeline in.
Guess what?
We swallowed hard and we did.
Trying to negotiate with Speaker Boehner is like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall.
He keeps moving the goalposts back because he can't control his caucus.
And they're sort of running off a cliff.
And he's following.
I think Boehner once described dealing with Obama this way, didn't he?
Boehner once said that dealing with Obama is like trying to stick their nail jello to the wall.
That he keeps moving the goalposts.
He said it July 13th.
Dealing with them the last couple minutes like dealing with Jell-O, Boehner said.
So there's Chuck Hugh Schumer ripping off Boehner.
To the phones we go.
Dan in Kauai, in Hawaii.
Great to have you on the program, sir.
Hello.
Aloha, Rush.
I just wanted to call and say thank you.
I used to be an angry, hateful, raging liberal, just like the rest of them.
I'm a young guy in my early 20s.
And if it weren't for me listening to you and opening my mind and actually listening to you and not just the sound bites out there about you, I'd still be hopeless.
And I just want to call and thank you for it because you truly have changed my life and my perspective on the world as a I sincerely appreciate it.
I really do.
And I know you mean it.
Can I ask you a question?
Absolutely.
Why were you so angry?
Well, because that's the way the media wants you angry.
The establishment wants you angry.
They want you dissatisfied with the way the system is.
And that's just part of the liberal conditioning is that you're never happy.
And that's what liberals don't like to admit.
I mean, I can honestly say that because I used to be a liberal.
Like, I was unhappy.
I was angry.
I didn't like Rush Limbaugh.
He was a terrible person as far as I was concerned.
Even though I'd never listened to your show, I somehow knew you were a terrible person.
When I actually listened to your show, I realized how wrong I was, and I feel almost ashamed that I was duped.
But it wasn't just me.
You've nailed it.
You were unhappy at everybody.
And nobody wanted you to be happy.
It just wasn't in the cards.
Something was wrong with you if you were happy.
Precisely.
Now, have you ever heard of a right-wing community agitator?
You ever heard of a right-wing community organizer?
No, I thought those were only on the left-wing.
Yeah, they are.
They are.
You're exactly right.
Agitating people, getting them all worked up, getting them ticked off, keeping them ticked off, keeping them mad, keeping them unhappy.
That's a job for people on the left.
And it's not just keeping them unhappy.
They're easier to lead when they're mad.
They're easier to shape, bend, flake, and form.
But it's what you get them mad at.
Guy's exactly right.
Get them mad at the system.
Get them mad at the status quo.
Get them mad at capitalism, at prosperity, at the inequities, the unfairness.
Well, I'll tell you, you have made my day, Dan.
I really appreciate it.
I thank you.
I thank you very much.
I'll never forget, I guess it was after the 2002 midterms.
Yep, it was.
Tom Puff Dashel, who was at the time the Senate majority leader, let slip with a truth.
They had been somehow studying ratings for this program.
They'd hired some people, some experts, they call it, do some research.
And Tom Daschell let it slip that their experts had told them, the Democrats, that I was not just preaching to any choir, that I was actually changing Democrats' minds.
And they were quite alarmed at that.
They're very, very, as Dashel said, we're very concerned, Tim.
We're very concerned, highly, highly concerned.
Our experts have told us, Tim, and we're concerned that Limbaugh is not just preaching to the choir.
No, no, Limbaugh, our experts say, is actually convincing Democrats to think a new way.
I'm highly, highly concerned about this, Tim, which is the way Dash will dingy Harry does same thing.
He's speaking soft tones, so forth.
Well, look at that outbreak of freedom in Egypt.
New deadly violence as protest rages into fourth day.
Don't you love that outbreak of freedom and democracy taking place in Egypt?
Yeah, that's what they all told us was going to.
Well, we didn't believe it.
And we tried to warn people that the exact, well, what was happening now was going to happen is what we warned.
I mentioned the Jeb Bush piece in the Wall Street Journal.
And I also mentioned Stephen Moore, who is an editor there, spoke with Fox host Martha McCallum today.
And she said, is this column by Jeb Bush in the Wall Street Journal, is this a trial balloon right now?
I hope so.
I mean, look, I'm one of these people who says, let's have some new entrants into this race.
I mean, when you've had these people running for president for so long and nobody can get over 25%, I do think there's an appetite for somebody.
And Jeb Bush is one of the kind of people that is so well known around the country that if he were to get into this race, he could win as a write-in candidate.
It's only four letters, right?
B-U-S-H.
I think it's an important piece.
I don't think he's likely to get in the race, but there's a lot of people talking about it.
What's interesting in that piece that he wrote today is he's basically saying the American dream is alive and well, that anybody can pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and that it's Washington rules, regulations, spending, and debt that are impeding the path to prosperity and the path to rising income levels in this country.
This is why, folks, I don't ever make long-term political predictions.
How long ago was it, and it wasn't that long ago, where the conventional wisdom was, if anybody ever with the name Bush runs for the White House again, it's dead.
It's over with for the Republican Party.
The American people don't want to hear the name Bush anymore.
The American people are bushed out.
The American people are bushwhacked.
The media and the Democrats did such a profound job of ginning up hatred, disrespect, animosity, whatever you want to call it for the Bushes, that it would be suicide for Jeb Bush to run down.
He may be the best Bush of all, people said.
But oh, it's just unfortunate.
The timing is that this country will not put up with another Bush.
Not now.
And look what we have here.
Jeb Bush writes a piece in the Wall Street Journal, which, folks, I have to tell you, I could have written.
I have said as much.
I say it repeatedly on this program and in my Rush to Excellence appearances.
Extolling the virtues of freedom, economic freedom, capitalism.
People pursuing excellence, being the best they can be.
We have too many laws, too many regulations.
Everybody trying to control the outcome of everybody else.
There's no suffering and no pain and no risk-taking.
That's bad.
That's not good.
It's not how this country was built.
Jeb Bush is saying exactly what I've said over and over again.
And now we got some guy, Steve Moore from the Wall Street Journal, who's suggesting Bush could win in a write-in on a write-in ballot.
And it wasn't that long ago that everybody thought, oh, no, don't give it.
Oh, no.
Bush?
Oh, geez.
It's just a shame.
We love Jeb, but oh, no.
Oh, no, no.
That won't work.
Now look what's happened.
So clearly, yeah, wouldn't Jeb Bush remind people of George Bush?
This is what was people, no, oh, God, George Bush, people hated George Bush.
Everybody thinks Bush was hated.
Everybody thinks that Bush was stupid and idiot.
Oh, no, you want a suicide to party?
Oh, no.
That was the conventional wisdom.
We thought Rick Perry was doomed because he would remind people of Bush.
I could ask Steven Moore.
Hey, Steve, why aren't you calling for Sarah Palin to jump in?
She thinks the same stuff.
She believes the exact same thing that I believe and that Jeb Bush has written that he believes in the Wall Street Journal.
Would you say that the Wall Street Journal is part of the Republican establishment?
Yeah.
Large part.
I would.
A lot of other people would too.
So you might say now that a wing of the Republican establishment is floating a trial balloon for Jeb Bush.
And you know what it's based on?
There's panic.
I'll tell you what's happening here.
I think there's panic that Romney can't lock this up.
There's panic that Romney can't get above 30% under New Hampshire.
He gets 35.
And then they're looking, you know what?
Nobody else is either because they've successfully split the conservative vote in the primaries, Newt, Perry, Bachman, Santorum.
Individually, they're not doing well.
Combine their votes into a singular candidate and be beating Romney, but it didn't, obviously that way.
So, see how fluid things are?
See how the unexpected can all of a sudden come to life instantly?
Huh.
Palin's only five letters.
That's very easy to be right in.
Bush, V-U-S-H, four letters.
Palin, P-A-L-I-N, five letters.
Ted in Wilmington, North Carolina, as we head back to the phones.
Great to have you with us, sir.
Hello.
Oh, Rush.
How are you doing?
Very well, sir.
Thank you.
I want to make a comment.
I'd like to ask your advice on something if that's all right.
Sure.
First, my comment is regarding the race.
I think the candidates are just spending too much time attacking each other and not enough time attacking Barack Obama.
You know, we've got to remember the 11th commandment of President Reagan.
You know, Val shot to speak ill of another Republican.
I think sometimes they cross over that line to the point where it could help out Barack Obama.
And I would really love it if they just focused on the issue at hand here and just said the failures of this presidency and what they'll do to change it rather than just trying to tear down their opponents.
Ain't going to happen.
That's unfortunate.
Well, you're looking at it.
You're looking at it now.
The reason you're calling me is because it is happening.
Right now, Romney is outspending Gingrich 34 to 1.
In Iowa, Newt does not have any money.
Newt still doesn't have any money, significant money to run any ads.
Romney, of course, is loaded.
This question came up in the debate.
I forget who.
Did you watch the most?
Did you watch that debate Saturday night or whatever it was?
Not whatever.
I forget what it was.
The days are running.
Anyway, it came up, and they were all asked about this 11th commandment business.
And they all said, we can handle it.
This is what campaigning is all about.
You got to be able to take the arrows.
You got to be able to take the slings.
You got to be able to take this kind of stuff.
It's just a proving ground for what's going to happen when the nominee is chosen and when the Democrats get into gear.
And so whoever emerges from this victorious is going to have to be able to show they can withstand this kind of stuff because Obama's not going to respect that commandment, obviously not a Republican.
So they all say we can handle it, but it's the nature of politics.
And for the longest time, Gingrich, when he started his rise, if you will, was the one focusing on Obama.
Now that he's been perceived to be in the lead, they're turning their attacks on him and he's got to defend himself.
He has to do this.
It's the nature of the game.
Believe me, in due course, the attention will be changed and focused on Obama.
Your real dilemma, your real problem, and I just want to prepare you in advance for this, Ted.
The real problem is going to be, depending on who the nominee is, that the Republican Party won't take it to Obama.
Well, we're already seeing, we've already seen one polling group advise the RNC, don't attack Obama.
People love him.
His personal numbers are very high.
There's even a lot of sympathy for Obama.
People feel sorry for him, but don't.
You got to go after Obama's policies, Rush.
You got to go after his policy, Rush.
We can't go after him personally.
This is going to turn the independents off.
That's, Ted, that's where I fear you're going to get really disappointed.
If, depending on who the nominee is, it's up for grabs as to how hard Obama will be hit.
I give you McCain for crying out.
Why are you arguing with me about this?
You know.
Right.
Of course.
And they're repeating the mistake now.
They're trying to pick McCain Jr. as a nominee.
The whole thing being set up to be played out exactly as it was.
Anybody conservative, anybody who will take it to Obama is in the crosshairs trying to take him up.
Palin, Gingrich, Santorum, Perry, Bachman, they're all targets.
Anybody who is conservative, have you not been listening the past two weeks?
A Republican Party does not want a conservative nominee.
They're not comfortable with conservatives.
You just told me yourself, you've been reading biographies.
You told me how Eisenhower hated the conservatives.
They were Colin Powell on steroids.
Well, nothing's changed.
Nothing's, that's why this Jeb Bush thing is so fasty because Jeb Bush, you have Newt Gingrich write this, and I guarantee you he's being attacked all day.
But Jeb Bush writes it, and there's all kinds of intrigue now.
Hmm.
You know, Romney, you know, some people can say Romney's Kim Jong-un.
It's his turn.
Just, I mean, it's just a comparison.
Listen, I don't mean in actual comparative terms.
Don't give me some slack here.
All right, I'm going to go back to the archives here.
So we have Jeb Bush in the Wall Street Journal today, Capitalism and the Right to Rise.
It's a good phrase.
Paul Ryan coined a phrase to describe the core concept of economic freedom, the right to rise, the right to elevate, the right to increase or improve one's station in life.
And Jeb Bush writes a piece.
Honestly, this is not ego.
You listen here 23 years.
I'm trying to tell you this piece, you've heard it on this program for 23 years.
If you've ever been to a Rush to Excellence tour, you've heard me describe capitalism this way, describe American life, American prosperity, future, all of these things, the exact way that Bush writes about them here.
Now we got Steve Moore on Fox today with Martha McCallum saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, he could win in a write-in election.
It's only four letters, B-U-S-H.
None of these candidates get above 25 or 30%.
I want to take you back, Washington Times, May 3rd, 2009.
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush said Saturday it's time for the Republican Party to give up its nostalgia for the heyday of the Reagan era and look forward, even if it means stealing the winning strategy deployed by the Democrats in a 2008 election.
You can't beat something with nothing and the other side has something.
I don't like it, but they have it, and we have to be respectful and mindful of that, Bush said.
The former president's brother, often mentioned as a potential candidate in 2012, said President Obama's message of hope and change clearly resonated with Americans.
So our ideas need to be forward-looking and relevant.
I felt like there was a lot of nostalgia, the good old days, in a Republican messaging.
I mean, it's great, but it doesn't draw people toward your cause.
That's back in the days where the era of Reagan was over.
But I'm going to tell you that anti-Reagan populism is a non-starter.
Jeb Bush's piece in the Wall Street Journal today is very Reagan-esque.
It's very limbo-esque, but it's not commensurate with what he said back in May of 2009.
Because you see, conservatism is timeless.
You don't ever move on from conservatism.
Conservatism is never in your rearview mirror.
Conservatism is never passe.
I remember saying all of this back when Jeb said this stuff back in 2009.
And it wasn't just Jeb.
You remember the whole chorus of people.
Newt was one of them.
The era of Reagan is over.
I flip my wig and I don't wear one.
The era of conservatism is never over.
It is never passe.
Now, Mitt Romney was on the same stage.
There's a picture of Jeb Bush saying this.
And he's on a stage here with Eric Cantor and Mitt Romney.
And the event was entitled Conversation for a New America.
It was in Arlington, Texas, part of a listening tour, meant to revitalize the Republican Party.
It's a Washington Times story.
The era of Reagan is over.
And now here we are, almost at the end of 2011.
And Reagan is being revived.
And everybody's talking about the Reagan 11th Commandment.
The era of Reagan obviously isn't over.
Jeb Bush himself has written a piece.
The Wall Street Journal that Reagan could have written.
I don't know what to make of it.
You make of it what you want.
I'm just telling you one thing you can count on, you're never going to be able to go back at any point in the past and find a quote from me that indicates I have renounced conservatism or that I think it's passe or that I think it's harmful or that I think it's going to stand us in ill stead.
Quite the opposite.
Nope, you're not going to see me on a couch with Nancy Pelosi about anything.
About anything.
And by the way, our old buddy Mark Murano used to be our man in Washington on my TV show and now is a global warming expert.
He's got a piece.
He's got a blog that's called Climate Depot.
And he has a piece today.
I think it's, I saw it today.
It's Climate Depot.
Here it is.
Actually, this piece is from the John Locke Foundation, Roy Cordotto, but Mark Murano is mentioned in it.
Our man in Washington.
Apparently, Newt has a book coming out in 2013 after the election.
And yeah, according to Murano, Our Man in Washington, according to Climate Depot, Newt's book in 2013 is going to feature a chapter by a Texas tech climate scientist named Catherine Hayhoe focusing on the science of climate change.
Catherine Hayhoe believes in man-made global warming.
She is the author of Newt's chapter, according to Mark Murano.
She is the author of Newt's chapter on the climate in his forthcoming book in 2013, on the environment.
Hey-ho, Catherine Hayhoe is one of Newt's experts and it's a person who, when asked if the science was settled regarding global warming, she said, well, among climate scientists, people who spend their lives researching our world, there's no debate regarding the reality of climate change and the fact that humans are the primary cause.
This woman is writing Newt's chapter on climate change, his next blue book.
She says it is primarily lay people like talk show hosts who are perpetuating the idea that there is no scientific consensus.
Mark Murano, Our Man in Washington, claims that Newt's new book has a chapter written by a babe named Heyho.
No offense, Reverend Jackson.
That man-made global warming is happening, caused by man.
Okay, that's it.
Another exciting hour of broadcast excellence in the can.
It's the fastest three hours in media, and two of them are already done.
We've got more of your phone calls coming up and some exciting stuff in the sound is well, exciting, interesting stuff in the soundbite roster, too.